Soderling reaches Marseille Open quarter-finals

Top seed Robin Soderling had to battle for almost two hours to overcome Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 and reach the quarter-finals of the Marseille Open on Thursday.

Swede Soderling only managed to create two break points, both of which he converted, against world number 69 Stakhovsky.

"I think this is the first time I started a tournament on Thursday. It was good to have a few days off after Rotterdam," the world number eight, who won his first title this season in the Netherlands last Sunday, told reporters.

"I've always had good results in Marseille and I can remember I reached the final here in 2004," he added.